As this well researched work reveals, Hitlers handling the German Navy during the Second World War was full of contradictions.The seriousness of the U-boat threat was never in doubt and in the dark days of 1940 1942, the Donitzs daring strategy coupled with the courage and determined actions of the captains and crews became perilously close to starving Britain into submission.But, despite having built and nurtured a surface fleet with capital ships of formidable power, Hitler was uncharacteristically cautious of employing them aggressively. Examination of the reasons for this make for fascinating reading, possibly stemming from the early loss of the Graf Spee and the fact that, whenever possible, the Royal Navy threw all its weight regardless of cost at the Nazi threat; the loss of the Hood in the pursuit of the Bismarck being one example. Even Goebbels could not spin the loss of a battleship.The War against Hitlers Navy describes in fascinating detail the many fronts on which the adversaries faced each other and analyzes the reasons for the ultimate outcome.
WAR WITH HITLER’S NAVY
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Adrian Stewart appears to be the first author to compile secondary sources to create a comprehensive British perspective on the Royal Navy’s war with the Kriegsmarine. There are many books that deal, with aspects of the conflict such as particular battles, or naval vessels, or naval personnel but Stewart has done readers a service by assembling a treatise on major subjects from the rise of Hitler’s Navy to its ultimate demise. His book is organised in the form of nine topical chapters of a dozen to twenty-five pages each plus two indices: “Index” and a valuable “Index of Ships”.Therefore, this compendium fills a need in historiographical studies. A better title for this book would be The British War with Hitler’s Navy
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